12 posts from April 2008

To study for calculus tests, it's usually a good idea to buy past years' tests and take them for practise. But... oh god they are so long. And the fact that it's so tiring and so disappointing to turn the page and see more and more and more questions all while in the comfort of a nice library does not bode well for how I'll feel in some badly ventilated gymnasium tomorrow, writing my hand off along with 500 other kids for 3 hours.

Whaaatever. After that we're having a barbecue. I am going to pass out on the lawn.

Yesterday the Garg had our Passover seder. It was good. I feel like I had more to say about it yesterday. But now I'm tired and way backed up in Calculus studying. I feel like everyone's studying harder than me, but I'm not really taking it seriously because I don't want to get stressed.

Oh and holy - in the fall, res was so bloody hot, and then in winter it was cool, and now it's so hot again. Like no mild transition period. It is unpleasant. And no just in res, but a lot of the libraries. Ai.

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I'm not sure exactly what I'm doing with my time these days. I mean I'm always procrastinating on school, obviously. But like... I don't feel like I'm doing any of my "leisure pursuits" either. I amn't reading... and I am totally slacking on knitting anything. I haven't put any time into getting through the backed-up stack of unlistened-to music I recently came into possession of... I haven't played majiang in like... 3 weeks? A month? I have been pretty slacky on vox, too.

What have I been up to! I guess it's just been a lot of small distractions adding up to the equivalent of doing something decent.

Every week in Chem we'd get this online homework due at midnight on Sunday. And since last week was my last week of classes I figured no way they'd have it tonight. But, like a good student, I logged on 5 hours ago to check. Buttt... then I started listening to music and completely forgot. And I just remembered now, and surprise surprise we did have it. But it's 2 am. I don't care too much though. I did 11/12 of them. That's a good mark.

Today we had no hot water in our building and   no one     knew     what     to     do with themselves. I don't know. It was really the focal topic of the day, and everyone felt kinda greasy. I guess everyone showers in the morning. I tried to shower in only cold, and this left me feeling chilled all day. Lame. And it wasn't even too nice out today. That's okay; I lived in the library anyway.

I have spent the last 4 days working on the newspaper, and it was really making me go mad, but it'll be done by 4 tomorrow or..... it'll be done.

Ay ay ay!

Yesterday I wished it would rain, thereby forcing me into the library. But this morning it did rain... and I still wanted to be outside. I just loved walking through Queen's Park... I missed rain smell, and the sound. And, I don't know, it made me feel "connected". This is 100% hokey, but I was like "This has been monsoon rain, this has been Alps snowmelt, this has been Amazon river flow". All that crap, haha. But then I had to sit in philosophy for two hours, as if I didn't despise that class enough.

Oh wow it is totally over. Except for the exam. I am too tempted to just float on my mark through the exam..... It is only 35%... But I can't! But if I want to do otherwise, I'd better get to work... I did barely anything today. I did have a lot of class today. Oh god. Today's Soc was our second lecture on "Research Methods", and everyone was falling asleep. Sometimes I'm sure he's stretching it to spite us. He'll repeat all the simplest parts in excruciating detail. The only thing that saved us all was that an hour and twenty minutes in... we heard this howl throughout the hall (it's the school's biggest auditorium), and these 4 guys came running in, faces covered, underwear only. They screamed, jumped around.... yeah I think that woke everyone up.

But that lecture gave me a headache. It's gone right now, but it's been off and on all afternoon. Perhaps I've run into some nutrient deficiency that I haven't foreseen...

I got up early for class today, but now I have nothing until 7. Hours and hours to enjoy this beautiful day!! It is so nice. I went over to the library for lunch with a friend (did I mention that every building on campus seems to have an eatery), and then we just dawdled so much getting back to res... and we were enjoying it so much, we just got a bunch of people together and went for a lovely walk to the east. I was aiming for a park, but we kept drifting north and missed it. But I cared not - it's warm enough for a windbreaker over a short-sleeved shirt, even just a t-shirt without a jacket places where it isn't windy. Aaaahhhh....

And so now I'm sitting in my room trying to work.... but my window is wide open, and there's jus no way.... I can smell the hotdog stand across the street, and I'm thinking of barbecues on the back deck... And the cottage. Oh hot damn I need to get up there. Lazy buzzing days reading on the moss in the shade of the pines... Dinners outside in the late dusk light... Thunderstorms!... Kayaking, swimming.... Bonfires.... Friends and family. Oh god! I love the city, I do, but there is nothing like being up north by the water, surrounded by nature.

And it looks like I may get a vacation this summer after all. They said we wouldn't at the first job training session, but then I heard that the first week of August was off. So we may get out west to see the family, which would be awesome. I miss Gramma. And I have good memories of hiking in the coulees, down by the river in the dry prairie heat. Yikes! I am looking forward to summer. And enjoying now, too.

Too bad about exams!

Holy crap.

I procrastinated on this chem lab since Wednesday night. And as soon as I gave my neighbour my laptop power cable and battery, plus my Nintendo DS... 2 hours. That's all it took.

Last week's training for science camp was a bit boring... pedagogy and stuff like that. And I was dreading another two days of it this weekend.

But it turned out so much better!! Turns out we'd put all the paperwork and lecturing behind, and so we spent two 8-hour days going through all the activities we'd do with the kids. So that meant that I got to build a rollercoaster out of tubing, and cars with dowels and cardboard, and make a hydraulic marble maze, and windmills, and cars, and cranes, and bridges out of newspaper, and blow bubbles, and extract DNA, and take fingerprints, and type blood, and build a castle, and make cardboard box guitars, and send coded messages, and make a working stoplight.

Phew. And it was a bit tiring. And because of that... I really didn't do any homework last night. Whoops, see you late tonight, chem lab!

It was completely fun though. We were sitting in groups around tables, using scissors and glue... I even brought a lunchbox today! It was like being in elementary school all over again.

I also had a bit of a child-like accident... they had just finished telling us how important it was to emphasize safety to the kids... and I kind of sliced my thumb open on the scissors. It was more embarassing than anything else. Though not really.

Also, I got the phone call today that I get to be a Frosh Leader for my house next year. Yay reliving frosh over again! With a bit more work... Man it seems weird but I miss being exhausted and dead thirsty and always on the go from that week.

Today was the Clear Brightness Festival, which is supposed to be for going outside and enjoying the spring greenery, which is exactly what I felt like doing today. Unfortunately.... the ancient Chinese didn't plan for the amount of coursework I would have, nor the wet weather we had today. Oh it's also for sweeping graves, and I didn't really feel like that.

That's not to say that I didn't enjoy the rain, because I always do. I mentioned this in our Common Room, and someone said "That's because you're a plant." Which is sort of true, in that I like rain because I know it means fertility and growth. "April showers bring May flowers", as they say.

Blah blah blah and I'll be inside for all tomorrow and Sunday thanks to job training.